I can scarcely believe that it’s been more than a year since Laura announced the project at Eurosynergy and requested contributions from the polymer community. They responded with enthusiasm: polymer artists from 27 countries around the world and 37 States around the US sent an abundance of hand-fabricated floral and faunal elements inspired by their geographically-diverse environments. Into The Forest is more than an art installation; it is a celebration of diversity and unity. A virtual global forest.

A small version of Into The Forest had its first public showing in Philadelphia as part of a larger “Constructing Organics” show which ran at the Park Town Place Gallery from September 2 to December 30, 2016. Emily, Laura and Julie have spent this past year working to make Into the Forest come to life in Pittsburgh.

I have posted before about the work of Isaiah Zagar’s walls and his Magic Garden. You don’t always have the good fortune to see a work in progress but that’s what happened to me during a walk in my neighborhood. I stumbled on what appears to be the latest installation in the neighborhood.

Here’s a photo of a work around the corner to give you a general idea of Zagar’s work. You can never tell how something like this will turn out though. It looks like a few of the pictures might be portraits including one of the artist, and I think one of the figures in the first picture is a chicken. Will it remain a chicken? I will post pictures of the finished wall when its done

When my friend Jeri told me that her friend Brian was participating in the second Philadelphia Art in the Open, which took place on June 9-12, 2011, I was itching to go. I had never seen one of his installations “in person” before, but I had seen The Brian Dennis Project – a film documenting how he designed a wooden installation that seemed to defy gravity and then built it on a staircase inside the Philadelphia Art Alliance in 2004. (To see pictures of the installation, “Leaning Keep,” press here.)

Art in the Open aims to give a different perspective on the creative process by inviting the public to watch artists working outdoors and, consequently, enabling artists to draw inspiration directly the environment. In Philadelphia, this is an urban environment. So it seemed appropriate that Brian had decided to build giant towers under a bridge near the Waterworks.

On our drive there, Jeri told me that Brian built the towers from wooden coffee stirrers. Talk about the environment having an effect on the creative process! We wondered how the towers had withstood thunderstorms the night before. Were they still there? What would they look like?

We met Brian standing in front of his installation answering people’s questions and talking about the challenges of building an art installation on a steep, rocky incline under a bridge trestle during a heat wave. But he wasn’t alone; he explained good naturedly how a family of baby rats, a garter snake and a suspicious groundhog watched his every move. And take it from me, Philadelphia groundhogs are tough! Brian knew enough not to mess with the groundhog (he was on the groundhog’s turf, after all) and he completed the installation. To see the installation as it looked when Brian finished it, press here.

But then it rained and the installation took on a different form. Not what Brian had planned. Even so, his installation caught the attention of everyone who passed by the next day.

Here are some pictures.

And a couple who had just gotten married had the courage to climb up under the bridge to have some wedding photographs taken next to Brian’s creation. I wonder if the rats, snake and groundhog minded?

To go to Brian’s web site, press here. To go to his blog, which contains in-depth information about the creation of the installation, press here.

Philadelphia is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its Public Art Program this year! It had one the first “percent for art” public art program in the United States when it passed an ordinace in 1959 that required that a percentage of construction costs for municipal projects be set aside for fine arts. Read more about the program’s history here.

The pictures below are a sampling of some the public art in Center City Philadelphia. I’m sure you’ll recognize some of them. Yes, those are huge dominoes and Monopoly pieces! One of my favorites has always been Claes Olbenburg’s Clothespin in Centre Square. That’s a reflection of City Hall in the building behind it in the picture below.